Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana and his team of officials, who have just returned from China and Malaysia after studying the top class urban transportation systems, appear to be not a happy lot back home as the Vijayawada (Amaravati) metro railway project is mired in uncertainty for two reasons.
The first is the basic objections raised by the NITI Aayog on the peak passengers-per-hour-per-direction (PPHPD) and the Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR) criteria.
The second, which is in fact the bigger obstacle, is it’s linking up with the Central government’s new metro rail policy which is in the process of evaluation and public consultations.
The State government was asked to wait for the final approvals till the new policy was finalised.
A senior official of the Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC) told The Hindu that the Vijayawada Metro would not be able to match the peak passengers-per-hour-per-direction (called ‘ridership’) requirement, which is minimum 20,000 in a single direction, for at least the next two-and-a-half decades.
The inadequacy of the FIRR which is a paltry 3.5% now against the stipulated 8% is another impediment.
“We are not sure what the new policy will say about a host of criteria and whether Vijayawada metro will be at least a striking distance from the targets,” the AMRC official observed.
He said the opinion gained ground that in view of the problems in getting the necessary clearances and funds more than two years after the Detailed Project Report was prepared, the Andhra Pradesh government should consider building an elevated electric busway which is cost-effective.
But this is also in the thought process as the future requirement, say for the next 15 to 20 years is to be kept in mind.
It is noted that there will not be much difference in the cost of constructing a viaduct which is common for a metro rail or an e-bus but converting an electric busway into a metro rail entails huge expenditure on coaches, signal and telecommunications and electrical installations.
Against this backdrop, the Maglev trains and other systems examined by the Minister in China are scheduled to be discussed with the Chief Minister in the coming weeks and the Government’s Advisor on metro railway projects E. Sreedharan later.
